Ponko Omdömen 

Needed a new car as had mine 10 years saw what I liked and was offered £450 for mine against an 8500 car I really wanted at least 600 but bit my lip and thought ok, I didn't have an appointment so made one on the saturday to go back and finalise everything, cancelled the tax and insurance on my current motor to expire at midnight that day and set up a policy to drive the new one away, I asked if the oil and filter was done and wanted pollen filter changing as wife has just had a lung operation done and i felt it should be changed, it wasn't they wasn't bothered, didn't even want to address the dents either! It also wasn't valeted and only after i got it home i discovered iron fallout all over the paintwork which was etched in and an absolute faff to remove, its a long process i'll get on top of, but i'd advise anyone buying a car to thoroughly inspect the paintwork, They knew I'd cancelled the tax and insurance but that didn't stop them from going against the trade in agreed value and dropping it even more to 350 because of a small oil leak! The car i traded wanted for nothing as everything was replaced, then they had the gall to talk me into a warranty I didn't need which incidentally is not an independent company but the same as ponko, the chap that runs it are one and the same and i've found out thats a con and not worth the paper its printed on after reading the reviews on both companies it's pretty clear now, least they got close to the asking price of the car with it.
After taking the car home I got a mechanic go over it and change the oil and filter ( which was low) due to the fact the PCV valve was faulty and the oil was spilling into the turbo intake, also wasn't done for over 2 years! Proof was written on the old filters, air filter was the same, filthy. Also whoever did the MOT there wants sacking tyres were over 7 years old and perished so I need to get new tyres also front nearside has a bulge in the sidewall and 2 nails in it and not to mention they were way over inflated! Also the washers barely were spraying and the rear one doesn'twork which suggests faulty pump, really surprised they passed it, no advisories for the front discs which are well worn either, TPMS has just packed in as well (10 years) is good innings for them so should have expected that, timing belt and water pump due (10 years) there's no service history either they tried to tell me last owner had it serviced at each mot, there should have been some paperwork but they wasn't interested, bit of a raw deal but that's my fault I should have seen the signs having worked for 2 dealerships in the past. I like the car so will get it up to scratch like I did the last one, could have done without a money pit so early on but hey ho,
Best bit, the £350 i got for my old one is nothing compared to what the cheeky beggars put it up for....£2500!!!!
The whole experience left me feeling somewhat deflated and bitter and even cheated and at my age should have known better, I just know it won't happen again.

If I could give it a 0/5 rating I would.

Despite being recommended to Ponko by a local who knew the ownership, I could not have had a worse experience.

I purchased a Hyundai i20 for almost 6k and within 10 months the engine had completely gone (timing chain and potential damage to pistons).

Gave the company the opportunity to put things right before posting this but they have decided to wash their hands of it because I am a few months outside of their 6 month warranty. Most genuine companies would at least attempt to put things right given how much i have spent and how short a time I have had the vehicle. I am now left with an unusable car and whilst still owing over 6k on my finance.

I have seen plenty of other reviews echoing my sentiments regarding the car quality

I would not recommend this company, especially if you end up having issues.

Great experience with Richard and Adam, car is fantastic and the whole experience was first rate. Would certainly recommend. Thanks chaps.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Me and my partner had the best experience at Ponko! We travelled a long way to view and buy a car, and from the moment we arrived, we were made to feel so welcome. Richard was amazing throughout, polite, friendly, and easy to chat with. The customer service from the whole team was brilliant, and we couldn’t recommend them enough.

A nice bonus is the unlimited self-serve coffee and tea machine, which I think is such a great touch. It really made the experience even better.

Good service. Good place to buy. Good Seles team. Richard is very friendly.

Richard is perfect. He is the man who keep our mood perfect.

Helpful and friendly

Richard and Dan cracking blokes and great customer service, very happy with the new motor. Learnt about new fruit called Green Gauges they were delicious

James walked me through several ideas and explained everything to me in detail for my first car buying experience. well spoken and very respectful gentleman. Made the process a lot easier than expected.

Michael the delivery person was also super helpful as he spoken into detail about the car in person too with the warranty and extras which came with the car.

Would definitely recommend them!

Shocking customer service. Bought my daughters first car, clearly an issue with the door not closing, salesman tried to brush this off saying there was no problem, that it's normal for an older car. AA inspection highlighted the problem, still denied by the salesman. Became very apparent on the drive home after purchase. I was reluctant to drive it all the way back. Having lost total trust in their dishonestly, a local garage identified the problem. Ponko denied covering it on my 12 month warranty that I paid hundreds for. Extremely rude communication from Ponko. Very poor customer service all round. Avoid at all costs.

Where do I start. Firstly a member of staff at ponko was incredibly rude when speaking with me over the phone. His tone was rude and argued with me so much so that people around me could hear him shouting at me down the phone. He had asked me to remove a review I had posted, and when I explained my reasons for leaving the review he argued with me saying it was a lie. I explained that as a customer I am entitled to leave my review, opinion and experience for others to see.

I then explained that they sold me a car with the air con not working (I tested this on a cold day so it seemed cool when I bought it but soon realised as the weather got hotter it was not working). This was a struggle with ponko for them to fix this under the warranty. They first told me I would have to take it to an independent garage to get them to diagnose it, but when I explained that would mean me having to pay another garage to get it fixed, he bit back at me saying "obviously they will want paying". After what felt like them saying anything to get out of fixing it,
he agreed for me to bring it for them to have a look at. He should have stopped there but went on to shout at
me about my review, telling me to take it down. After the way he spoke to me, I felt this was not good customer service and when I told him this, he laughed at me down the phone and said "what have I done!" I did not feel in any way comfortable taking my car back to them to fix the air con, I have no faith or trust that they would have fixed the problem, and after threatening me that "we will discuss your review face to face" as a
female this was extremely intimidating and I decided not to go back there to take my car.
I have since taken my car to a reliable, trustworthy garage and had to pay over £500 to get the air con fixed. There was an open circuit which meant a damaged wire that was causing the air con issue which was not picked up by ponko in their so called thorough inspections!
Stay well away, they sell dodgy cars (they have my old Ford kuga up for sale the day after they bought it from
me when they told me the gearbox was damaged) and on top of this they
are extremely rude and intimidating to
their customers!

Absolute nasty nasty company. Disgusting behaviour from the company owner.

Purchased my car back in Nov 2024. Drove 3 hours home to find in the boot that the under trays had been taken off and left there. Along with an issue of engine misfire, and issue with the heater, I contacted Ponko, and admittedly they sent a truck to collect the car and have these issues rectified. I received the car back after less than a week, was told that the trays were refitted, the misfire was addressed, but the heater was fine as all Volkswagen apparently make these noises with the heating on. Funny as one of our household car is a VW CC and it doesn’t do this, but hey ho. I did bring this back up and was spoken to like I had no clue about cars so I immediately knew I would be covering the cost myself, which I did.

Fast forward to June 2025. My car developed a gearbox fault, and having purchased their extended warranty, I reached out to them to advise that the car had an issue. I took the vehicle to an independent VAT registered garage as advised. This garage told me to take the car to VW as there was a chance that it could be covered under a manufacturer warranty, so I asked Ponko their opinion, to which they advised to do so. I then asked for confirmation that should the job not be covered by VW, whether my warranty will be covering this fault as it was a possible £2k+ job. I was asked where in my warranty does it state that a gearbox auxiliary oil pump is covered (auxiliary meaning electronic), so I sent across where it states gearbox oil pump and then received no further feedback.

Today I advised Ponko that VW are covering the works, and how I am disappointed in their service as they never provided feedback on coverage which has been stressing me as I was thinking I would be liable to covering the cost of this even though it should be covered. I then received a very aggressive phone call from their owner, who even began shouting down the phone at me for my comments in my earlier email. Spoke down to me like I was some naughty child, and even had the audacity to patronise me further by telling me to go away and have a think about what I said in that email. I said twice that I am in hospital sitting by my severely ill father, yet he continued on. Eventually I just advised him we can agree to disagree. Absolutely disgusting behaviour, and disgusting customer service. I would advise anyone at all who purchases a vehicle from Ponko to steer clear of any additional warranties that they upsell, and ensure you get a full AA inspection of the vehicle you are considering before handing this lot any money.

I have bought plenty of cars from dealerships, and never have I dealt with such an aggressive company. Completely out of order, and on the attack without allowing me to even finish a sentence. You should be ashamed of yourselves for presenting as a professional business, yet thinking it is acceptable to speak to people the way that I was spoken to.

Very good team

i seldom right reviews but in this instance i feel i have to. i was going to buy a car from ponko and they wanted a deposit to hold it. i was very reluctant as i know how difficult it is to get deposits back. but ross assured me no matter what the reason it would be refunded. i laid the deposit with a real gut feeling if anything happend that would be last i would see of that money. due to unforseen curcumstances i couldnt purchase the car so time to put ponko and ross to the test. i am happy to say they were both good to there word. so ross n ponko i tip my hat to you and you get my vote of confidance. thank you

Recently received excellent, knowledgeable and a processional service from James. Nothing was too much trouble. All the information I requested was provided quickly, honestly and accurately. First class garage to be a customer with.

AVOID!!!

I recently purchased a BMW from Ponko and within 3 days, it broke down on my driveway and would not start and displayed warning lights on the dashboard.

When my car breakdown company came out it showed the battery was completely dead and they noticed other issues… when I purchased the car 3 days prior, Ponko actually asked me to wait after purchasing as they were “replacing the car battery” - what they had done was taken an old Mercedes battery and put into the BMW X1. I had to book this in for replacement at a local garage once the car was dropped off there by breakdown. (See photo attached of battery test)

The car was also sold with an outstanding recall for the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) which I was not notified of and actually the vehicle should not have legally been sold with an outstanding recall especially if the consumer is not notified.

The car was then booked into BMW main dealership for diagnostics by myself on the headlights and service (this was what my breakdown company confirmed also looked an issue when they came out) and it was confirmed that BOTH headlight units needed replacing due to water ingress and damage. (Costing over £3600 for replacement of both) and they found on inspection that the vehicle oil level was too high and diluted and showing a fault code. The vehicle is diesel and I questioned whether the service had legitimately been completed by PONKO before sale. it had to be booked into BMW for replacement of complete headlight units and for a full service as well as brake sensors needing replacement due to being broken.

Ponko did offer to take the vehicle away and have the recall completed by BMW near them and to replace battery and look at the headlights themselves (ponko), etc. HOWEVER, after the issues from sale.. there was no way I would be trusting them with the car again and needed it to be looked at by the main dealership… which I am so happy I did.
They did also offer to pay for the replacement battery, however, mentioned in an email that if they paid for this, they would not take any responsibility for anything else and stated that if I agreed to this then the agreement would need to remain confidential and not disclosed to any third parties and if I breached this then it would result in legal action against me. - BEYOND ME???? and this is what definitely made me not trust them or agree to any of that.

Overall, the repairs have cost almost a whopping £4,500 - thankfully I used my own finance company and they covered repairs.

They also charge a £299 admin fee if you use your own finance company who pay the money for the car directly to their bank account as a transfer, within minutes. I assume this is because they aren’t getting a kick back/incentive from their own finance lenders - however, I would urge anyone to use their own bank car finance if you can, you’re protected as you are the finance companies customer, not Ponko… the APR is a lot less, these guys providers are around 12.9% which is crazy!!!

Also, don’t bother with their own warranty, usually isn’t worth the paper it’s written on and if you read down more reviews, it will confirm this.

Looking into their reviews more, I am not the first customer that has purchased a car from them which has had issues or broken down within days of purchase.

Receptionist and seller were fun, professional, I was agreeably and politely welcomed, offered refreshment upon my arrival, overall it was a nice experience.

My daughter bought a vw polo from here with a one year warranty, air con not working she went off and got it fixed and the garage only gave her a 50% contribution toward the bill as apparently she should have called them first so they could tell her where to take it. two weeks later air con still not working she calls them and says where do i take it they give her a garage to take it too, they diagnose the problem and when she contacts them they refuse to pay for it as they say it is not a true diagnosis. Stay away from this business as they do not care about customers in any way shape or form only their profit.

Anthony was amazing

I had an appointment for 11am.
Was kept waiting 20 mins.
When the salesman finally arrived, the only thing he said was ‘had I looked at the car?’ I asked about the previous owners and what he could tell me about the car. Apparently, he couldn’t tell me about previous owners (I just asked if it was correct that there had been 2) due to GDPR. He also told me that, whilst he had all of the car documents, there were too many cars to know about them all.
He didn’t tell me mileage, if it had a full service history - literally nothing.
It was so bad that I left.
Got back on to Auto Trader, found a car with a reputable garage and bought it that afternoon.
The difference in customer service was night and day.
If this is the level of customer service pre-sale, I dread to think what it would be like if there was a problem, post sale.
Just bizarre.
Would not recommend this company in any shape or form!